Foodpanda now in 100 cities, to have 120K restaurants in 2 months

Not to be outdone by competitors, Foodpanda is now available in 100 cities, the company said in a statement. It claims to serve all “major tier 2 and 3 cities and towns in India” and is the first online food delivery service in Aizawl, Shillong, Raipur, Jodhpur, Bhavnagar, Patiala, Nellore, Durgapur, Shimla, Rewa, Bokaro etc. Foodpanda’s statement also erroneously called Goa a “city”, its 100th.

Foodpanda has also launched its own delivery personnel in these 100 cities, but did not mention the number of riders. Foodpanda currently claims to have over 60,000 restaurants on its platform, with an aim to double this number by January 2019. (Wow!)

Previous expansion

Just over a month ago, Foodpanda added 30 more cities to its repertoire, and was then present in 50 cities. At the time, it claimed to be the only/first online food delivery platform in 13 cities including Ajmer, Bikaner, Mathura, Rajkot, Jabalpur, Ujjain and Meerut.

In September, Foodpanda launched in thirteen cities in partnership with 3,000 restaurants and 5,000 delivery agents. Foodpanda hopes to quadruple the delivery fleet by March next year.

There is no doubt that Foodpanda has been able to expand this rapidly on the back of its acquisition by Ola. Tier 2 and 3 cities contribute to 40% of Foodpanda’s national business, it claims, while adding that, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhavnagar, Rajahmundry, Bikaner, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Ujjain are some of its fastest growing markets.

It currently claims to have 150 million users, when combined with Ola, and processes 300,000 orders daily. It also has a delivery network of 125,000 personnel.

Competition

Zomato

Yesterday, Zomato said that it would launch in 30 more cities including Puducherry, Jamshedpur, Ambala, Meerut, Haridwar, Bhavnagar, Ujjain, Puri, taking its total presence to 93 cities, with plans to expand to 7 more cities in the near future.

It will also expand its HyperPure – produce procuring and supplying arm – to Delhi NCR.

It was already present in 28 other cities, and cites growing consumer demand in Tier 2 and 3 cities for its expansion.

In September, Swiggy expanded to Dehradun, Pondicherry, Mysore, Vijayawada, Nashik, Guwahati, Kanpur and Ludhiana, in partnership with 1,200 restaurants. Earlier this year, it opened shop in Chandigarh.

UberEats

In May, Uber said that within a year of operations from Mumbai in May 2017, UberEats had 12,000 restaurants. At the time, 40 new restaurants were being added daily.

UberEats is available in 13 cities in India and was then apparently experiencing nearly 50% month-on-month growth, with the number of orders doubling from March to May 2018.